5.  The applicant was born in 1949 and lives in Riihimäki.
6.  The applicant was the Administrative Director and a deputy board member in a company initially called ICC, later Cedro Oy (henceforward ICC/Cedro Oy). It bought, sold and rented out computers. It was declared bankrupt on 30 December 1992.
7.  In the District Court, the public prosecutor charged the applicant with inter alia debtor dishonesty on the grounds that he allegedly had participated, while the company was already in serious financial difficulty, in arranging for the company to be bought essentially with its own money by another company. It was alleged that the applicant put together this plan with two other persons, R. and K., one of whom owned the purchasing company, and that the purpose of the purchase, which made no commercial sense, was to divert money away from the debtors of ICC/Cedro Oy. The indictment concerning count 9 read:
“On 24 July 1992 Cedro Oy's bank account contained 815,000 Finnish marks [FIM]. Before, the balance was FIM 135,655. For the return sale and the onward sale of the information technology equipment and the leases mentioned in count five, CPT IS Oy credited Cedro Oy's account with FIM 650,000.
According to a mutual agreement between [R., the applicant and K.], [K.], on behalf of Sipoon Finanssi Oy, immediately after CPT IS Oy had sold the worthless Cedro Oy shares for FIM 580,000 to Sipoon Finanssi Oy, owned by [K.], withdrew money from Cedro Oy's bank account leaving FIM 655.
The sale by CPT IS Oy of the Cedro Oy shares to Sipoon Finanssi Oy was actually financed by funds belonging to Cedro Oy itself. [K.], on behalf of Cedro Oy, lent FIM 580,000 to the insolvent Sipoon Finanssi Oy ... . Those moneys were used in order to pay for the Cedro Oy shares.
The transfer in the bookkeeping accounts of the information technology equipment ... from Cedro Oy back to CPT IS Oy was a condition for the purchase of the Cedro Oy shares. Accordingly, on 24 July 1992, by the joint measures of [R., the applicant and K.], FIM 815,000 was withdrawn to the detriment of Cedro Oy's debtors leaving a balance in the account of FIM 655. Of that amount, FIM 580,000 was withdrawn to the benefit of CPT IS Oy and the remaining over FIM 230,000 to the benefit of [K.]. This took place in accordance with an agreement made by him, [R.] and [the applicant.] There were no acceptable reasons for the withdrawals.
The mutual understanding between [the three men] had risen before and in connection with the purchase.”
8.  On 27 March 1997, while convicting the applicant of two counts of an accounting offence and sentencing him to a suspended term of four months' imprisonment, the District Court rejected the charge of debtor dishonesty on count 9, on the grounds that it had not been shown that there had existed an agreed plan or that the applicant had been aware of the origin of the money used for the purchase. K., who in the pre-trial investigation had testified that there had been such a plan, had retracted his statement in the District Court.
9.  The prosecutor appealed, charging the applicant again with debtor dishonesty. There was an oral hearing, in which however count no. 9 was not addressed.
10.  On 22 June 1999, the Court of Appeal of its own motion convicted the applicant of aiding and abetting debtor dishonesty and imposed on him a suspended term of a total of ten months' imprisonment.
11.  It found that it was undisputed that R. had been the chairman of ICC/Cedro Oy's board of directors and the applicant a deputy board member, authorised to act on behalf of the company and the administrative director until 24 July 1992, when K. had become a board member. R. who on behalf of CPT IS Oy signed the documents relating to the sale of the ICC/Cedro Oy shares was a board member in the first-mentioned company, of which the applicant was also a board member. It was further undisputed that K. stated in the pre-trial investigation that during the negotiations with the applicant it had become apparent to him that it would be his job to close down the companies in question. On 24 July 1992 CPT IS Oy bought back the information technology equipment (which it had sold earlier). As a result, ICC/Cedro Oy's bank account contained a balance of FIM 815,000 on that day. Following this, K. withdrew the said FIM 815,000 from the account. Of that amount, Sipoon Finanssi Oy borrowed FIM 580,000 without surety. It never repaid the loan (the Court of Appeal's judgment pages 22-23).
12.  Contrary to the District Court, the Court of Appeal held that it had been clearly shown that the applicant, given his position in the company at the time of the offence under count 9, his training and experience, and the fact that he had taken an active part in the transactions, had known about the financial difficulties in spring 1992 at the latest (page 12). Further, it had been clearly shown, having regard to the pre-trial statements of R., K. and the applicant and other evidence, that the three of them had planned the transaction together. However, the applicant did not, in the Court of Appeal's view, hold a significant enough position of power in ICC/Cedro Oy to be convicted as a principal offender. As he had furthered the act of R. and K., he was guilty of having aided and abetted that act.
13.  On 31 January 2001, the Supreme Court refused the applicant leave to appeal. On 28 September 2001 it rejected his extraordinary appeal.